A chatbot answers questions in a conversation. An AI agent takes actions: it reads documents, calls systems, follows a workflow and produces an outcome, such as checking a supplier's documents or routing an invoice. Because agents act inside your systems, they need permissions, approvals and an audit trail that a chatbot never did.
- Gartner expects over 40% of agentic AI projects to be cancelled by the end of 2027 on cost, unclear value or weak risk controls.Gartner, Over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by end of 2027 (25 Jun 2025)
- Gartner estimates only about 130 of thousands of vendors claiming agentic AI are genuine.Gartner, Over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by end of 2027 (25 Jun 2025)
- 95% of organisations saw no measurable P&L return from generative AI pilots.MIT Project NANDA, The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025 (via Computing)
Chatbots answer
A chatbot takes a question and returns text. Useful for search and drafting, but the work still happens in people's hands.
Agents act
An agent takes a goal and works through steps: read the tender, check the supplier against the register, score the bid, flag anything suspicious, and send it for approval. Agents connect to systems such as SAP, document stores and email, which is where their value and their risk come from.
What changes for governance
Agents need identities, permissions and limits. High-impact actions need a human approval. Every action needs a log. Without these, agentic projects become the ones Gartner expects to be cancelled.
Watch out for agent washing
Gartner estimates only about 130 of the thousands of vendors claiming agentic AI deliver genuine agentic capability. Ask to see agents running on real systems, with approvals and logs, not a scripted demo.
Questions people also ask
Are agents safe?
What are good first agents?
What does BLDR do?
The problem isn't a lack of AI. It's AI you can't control.
95% of organisations saw no measurable P&L return from generative AI pilots, and 71% say switching their AI vendor would be difficult. Here's why, and what to do about it.
